Oldhamine A, a novel alkaloid from Daphniphyllum oldhami

Oldhamine A, a novel alkaloid with an unusual cyclopentadienyl anion in the fused-pentacyclic skeleton was isolated from the twigs of Daphniphyllum oldhami. The structure of oldhamine A was elucidated based on the spectroscopic data and the single-crystal X-ray diffraction crystallography. It is the first X-ray diffraction of the Daphniphyllum alkaloids with nitrogen-containing two pentacyclic rings. The inter-conversion between cyclopentadienyl anion and conjugated enolic unit was also conducted.